An example of the “reduction of the distance between the class and the working reality of EMBA participants”

guay-daleyne_opt-1Daleyne Guay is a serial entrepreneur. When he began the EMBA McGill-HEC Montréal in September 2014, he started the development of his future venture:  New Deal Brewery, a brewery dedicated to the production of artisanal and organic beers. The entrepreneur, who had been brewing beer in his home for nearly 20 years, wanted to launch a company that would be socially involved in the community while minimizing its ecological footprint. An ambitious project, but Daleyne had an extensive experience in entrepreneurship, thanks to the creation (and resale) of six companies, and this time he had an additional advantage: he was an EMBA participant!

Since its launch this fall, Boldwin, the brand of the three beers brewed by New Deal, has been a great success, exceeding the ambitious goals of its founder. In an interview with La Presse, Daleyne mentioned: “We had been working on the project for two years and as part of our market research, we met with buyers of major brands. Their comments were clear – our artisanal brewery needed to be twice as big if we wanted to be able to supply them adequately.”

A little taste of EMBA

Not only is Daleyne Guay a graduate of the McGill-HEC Montréal EMBA program, but he was an  EMBA participant during the creation of New Deal Brewery and has benefited from several aspects of the program in its development and implementation .

On the one hand, Daleyne chose subjects related to his company for the majority of his impact papers (papers aimed at linking the in-class lessons of the program with situations drawn from the participants’ work environment). Through these papers, he has been able to, among other things, improve his value creation statement, take time to plan his approach to performance measurement and use the principles of continuous improvement, as well as reflect on the different aspects to be taken into account in the development of an eco-friendly brewery. This analysis contributed to the “manifesto” of New Deal Brewery:

[…]We want people to deliver a message when they drink our beer. To take a stand. To act. To not just say but do. We are part of the action because we engage in real gestures that make a real difference. Our mission is to partner with people who want to be part of that action, too. Through our commitment, we support new ideas by working in partnership with people who want to… change the world with pleasure!

This “manifesto” is turned into concrete actions such as obtaining the Ecocert organic certification and official accreditation as a B Corp; choosing organic raw materials and local products; reducing energy and water consumption;  reusing brewing residues thanks to partners and collaboration such as the ones with the bakery L’Amour du pain and OatBox oatmeal, employing people from the SDEM SEMO Montérégie organization that supports the work integration of people with disabilities, decorating the brewery with recycled products, etc.

Even more valuable to the development and success of New Deal Brewery than all those useful and applicable papers are the people Daleyne met at the EMBA. He had, and still has, the opportunity to get feedback, advice and ideas from business leaders, lecturers, professors in the program, and, most importantly from his 39 classmates, experienced managers from a range of backgrounds.